‘Downsizing’ Teaser: Everything Is Better (and Smaller) in Leisure Land

Downsizing introduces us to an overpopulated world in which the concept of shrinking yourself to quell the human population explosion has become the new Big Thing. Everyone’s doing it! Everything’s better when you’re tiny! Your money is worth more, your houses are bigger, the resources never run out. It sounds great, right?

The new teaser for Downsizing welcomes us to Leisure Land, the idyllic tiny city populated by the downsized, those brave enough — or, maybe, desperate enough— to shrink themselves to five inches tall forever. That seems to be the only downside: once you’ve downsized, you can never go back. But, with a place like this to live in, why would you?

The only conflict in the movie, from what we can see in the trailers, seems to be that the perks of downsizing are so great that people aren’t doing it for the environment anymore, but for themselves. It’s a fascinating socio-economic satirical concept that unfortunately gets lost in the film our Oliver Whitney called “bland and misguided” in their review.

When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to overpopulation, Paul (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.